Air conditioners weren’t the only thing stressed by the recent heat wave — local roads were also affected.
Sections of road in the Finger Lakes region buckled due to the hot temperatures, on Route 390 in Greece and near Mount Morris in Livingston County.
- Concrete pavement is prone to buckling because it’s rigid and has no space to expand when heated, causing the pavement to buckle at critical stress points.
- As temperatures near 100 degrees, those segments experience thermal expansion.
- Newer road construction includes pressure relief joints, which can minimize or eliminate buckling, said Chris Reeve, New York State Department of Transportation Region 4 director.
Why did 390 buckle?
Older sections of pavement like the stretch of Route 390 north of state Route 104 don’t have pressure relief joints as part of their original construction, Reeve said. When those sections buckle, an asphalt patch is used to provide a flexible repair to the roadway. “Our plan is to go in and install more relief joints over the future so we minimize the reoccurrence of buckling in the concrete pavement,” Reeve said.
The buckling on Finger Lakes region roadways caused some flat tires for motorists. The impacts were less dramatic than what happened in Missouri, when a motorist was sent airborne by a sudden road buckling over the weekend…